Identifying a head clash as the cause of Daniel MacKinnon's near-death experience has revealed the courageous boxer fought on for four rounds with a slow bleed on the brain.

After reviewing footage of the brutal 10-round loss to Robbie Berridge on David Tua's undercard last Saturday, medical experts and MacKinnon's father, Ken, determined an accidental head clash in the sixth round caused the initial impact which resulted in the head injury. Solid blows from Berridge would have contributed to the bleeding from there.

MacKinnon needed brain surgery after the fight - a segment of his skull was removed and reattached to stop the bleeding - and his heart stopped for close to 40 seconds, before he began an astonishing recovery. He remains in a general ward. Head clashes are common when southpaw and orthodox fighters square off. In this instance that was again the case, with Berridge's nasty cut, which bled profusely from the halfway point of the fight, also opening up from contact with MacKinnon's head.